A schooner, catboats and barges working an oyster bed. Source; Lewis Hine, 1903, Library of Congress

Source; Library of Congress

The name schooner has its origin in North America in 1713, but the developed schooner rig had migrated with the Dutch and English colonists. The schooner rig can be traced back to 1697 in English drawings where they were widely used with a variety of names. The term schooner refers to the rigging and not the hull form or other characteristics that differ widely internationally; the gaff mainsail is the dominating feature.

The basic two-masted schooner can be described as a purely fore and aft rig having a single headsail, gaff foresail with boom, and a gaff and boom mainsail and generally taller than the foresail. Other sails may be set such as jibs and topsails without altering the name of schooner. More masts may be added, and as many as six or seven were built in North America. Schooners were built for carrying cargo, fishing, small war ships, privateering, surveying, smuggling and slave trading.

​The schooner design became very popular after about 1820 because of their speed and weatherliness compared to the square-rigged brigs. England and Europe wanted more fresh fruit for the Mediterranean, and in North America rapid urban expansion along the Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico demanded top speed for building materials. The need to get there first would lead to smart crews and fancy yacht-like names, and eventually international races were established for bragging rights. Speed dictated the design of the schooner until it was displaced after WW I with motorized vessels that 'lugged' along even in a dead calm. The Gaff Rig Handbook: History, Design, Techniques, DevelopmentsBy John Leather

The schooner fleet of the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Source; Lewis Hine, 1903, Library of Congress

Fleet of Biloxi Schooners, source; Joe Tomasovsky

As interest in the seafood industry grew in the late 19th century, fishermen required boats larger than the catboat to haul in the bountiful catches. Schooners, a fast-sailing craft with at least two masts and sails set fore and aft, replaced catboats. The coast schooners were inspired by those used in Baltimore for fishing enterprises carrying goods along sea trade routes, and the tradition of building them was deep in coastal naval enterprises. It was not until 1893 when a hurricane destroyed most of the schooner fleet on the Mississippi Gulf Coast that local boat builders designed a specific style of schooner that was best suited to the waters along the Mississippi coast, waterways that include bayous, oyster reefs, and shallow bays and lakes.

The Biloxi Schooners had a wide beam and shallow draft, ideal for fishing the Gulf. Source; Joe Tomasovsky

The schooner was christened the Biloxi Schooner, a boat characterized by a broad beam, shallow draft, and increased sail power. The schooner was fifty to sixty feet long, although some were larger. Because of its shallow draft, the Biloxi Schooner could easily sail in and out of waters with little depth, and its size allowed larger crews to work on the decks. The sail power of the Biloxi Schooner enabled the ship to drag the oyster dredges and shrimp seines when they became laden with the bivalves and crustaceans. These working crafts were both durable and graceful when “under sail.” In fact, Biloxi Schooners were often referred to as “white-winged queens” as they glided gracefully over the waters in and around the Mississippi Sound with their foresail and mainsail swung out on either side. Apprentice carpenters learning the boatbuilding trade in 1893 could expect to earn 75 cents a day for fifteen hours of work as they worked to replace the lost schooner fleet.

A fishing schooner in the Biloxi Regatta, source; Joe tomasovsky

Shipbuilders used local cypress wood for the frames of the schooner. Most of these frame boards were four to five inches thick and set approximately eighteen to fourteen inches apart, depending on the builder. Batten boards were then nailed or bolted to fill in the ribs and to make sure the hull was the correct shape. Caulk was then pounded between the batten boards of the ships to make it airtight. Builders often used Mississippi longleaf yellow pine for the keel, the main structural element of a ship that stretched along the center line of the ship’s bottom from bow to stern, and for its masts and spars, the thick, strong pole used to support the rigging for the “white-winged queens.”

Fishing schooners in the Biloxi Regatta, source; Joe tomasovsky

Shipbuilders harvested yellow pine from Ship Island, a barrier island approximately twelve miles out in the Gulf of Mexico. Sometimes live oak, another native tree, was used because of its strength. For example, the Gulfport Shipbuilding Company, also on Bayou Bernard, reported on March 4, 1920, that it purchased one piece of live oak, 18 feet by 18 inches, for $36.00. In the early 1900s, the average cost of a schooner was $2,200.

Deanne Stephens Nuwer, Ph.D., is associate professor of history and director of the Hurricane Katrina Research Center at the University of Southern Mississippi.Excerpt from Mississippi History Now, An online publication of the Mississippi Historical Society

The Bay Scow Schooner

The Bay Scow Schooner was a flat-bottomed boat cheaply constructed with barge wood with a blunt bull nose bow .

"The scow schooners that were built in Biloxi were mostly Louis Gorenflo's designs. Not all, but many were, particularly the Huron in the photo. That was built circa 1902 for the Gorenflo cannery." Russell Barnes

Two boys holding oyster rakes on the bow of a Bay Scow Schooner. Lewis Hine, 1911.

Small fishing boats with a crew of one or two were the most common craft throughout the history of fishing, but their history is obscure by the lack of interest from contemporary historians, and local traditions of small boat building. Historians typically classified boats by their sail design, that part of a boat easily observed form shore. Tradition dictated specific types and classes of small fishing boats based on low cost and maintenance, and home waters. But the boat builders were experienced fisherman aware of tradition, but who improvised freely with hull design and rigging. The Lugger and Catboat was small enough to be beached for off loading their cargo, but special harbor facilities were later built to accommodate their shallow draft.

The Catboat

Source; Detroit Publishing Co., Library of Congress

A great deal has been written about the origin of the catboat with most people giving credit to the New England ship builders for its development in America. According to Chapelle, "All of the rigs, except our extremely high, modern jib-headed rig, were in existence and were in use somewhere in the world at the earliest date of any extensive type-development in North America. This is true of the catboat." He also said, "The one essential factor in the design of boats proven by history is that they must fit the conditions where they are used and for what they are used."The development of the catboat, a specific class of small fishing boat in North America, began around 1840 with the demand for seafood for a growing nation that would be profitable for individual fishermen. During this time building records like half models and boat plans indicate the demand of the developing commercial fisheries required a small shallow draft boat with a centerboard, and a wide beam to carry as much sail as possible for their heavy load. The historical record indicate the evolution of a small workboat occurred up and down the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico at about the same time. Howard I. Chapelle was Senior Historian Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution and widely known for his boat designs and books on small craft, ships and boatbuilding.

A plain, stout, generous, powerful, simple, stable forgiving paragon of workboat, the American catboat is probably best known as a shallow draft, centerboard vessel between 12 and 40 feet overall, with a beam half as great as its waterline length. Its rig is a large single gaff sail set on a strong mast well up in the bow supported by a single forestay with a big barn-door rudder, as much as one sixth of the boat’s overall length. Originally designed for use as a commercial fishing vessel, the elements of its design were geared towards stability and seaworthiness.

The Lugger

The Lugger was the most common, and the most numerous, of the small fishing boats in the coastal waters of the Gulf from Galveston to Mobile in the 1880s. These boats were 30 to 40 feet in length, decked, with a big cockpit aft, and fitted with hatch covers to keep the oysters fresh. The mast was stepped well aft of the stern with only one shroud on each side, and a halyard to hoist a single lugsail. A typical 40-foot Lugger would have a beam of 12 feet and draw about a 4-foot draft at its deepest point. They are centerboard boats modeled for speed, and carried 3 or 4 lines of reefing. Two men were the crew of the Lugger that was very easy to handle with a rudder that hung outboard. Source; American Sailing Ships, Charles G. Davis, 1984

The Lugger was a cheap workboat that was both practical and attractive, usually built by the owner with local materials, and designed for home water and local weather. "...To 'sail cheap' you must give up varnish for paint, mahogany for pine, bronze for iron, gadgets for simplicity, and luxury for plain living. A boat that is individualistic, that sails and performs well, and that does her job, costing no more than one can afford." American Small Sailing Craft, Howard I. Chapelle, 1951

Luggers at a landing in New Orleans in 1903 off loading a cargo of sweet potato or yams. Notice the variety of hull designs, but all carrying the same lugsail and rigging. Source; Detroit Publishing Co., Library of Congress